Jodie’s got a gun

After watching the trailer for the new Jodie Foster film The Brave One, I think the only appropriate response is, “Wow, that was intense.” Really, really intense.

The psychological thriller follows Jodie’s character, radio talk show host Erica Bain, as she recovers from a brutal attack that leaves her fiancé (Lost’s Naveen Andrews) dead and her life in turmoil. As she struggles to find peace and justice, she cuts a swath of gun-toting vigilante justice through the streets of New York. That’s all fine and good, but I’d like to take a moment to thank whatever brilliant costumer designer decided to put Jodie in a series of sleeveless shirts. Say hello to toned gun-wielding arms. Hello.

Jodie has perfected the strong-woman-in-jeopardy genre and made it her own. She banishes all whiffs of damselism by making whatever peril lies ahead match up against her instinctual intelligence. And with one flash of her crystalline cerulean eyes, you just know peril is toast.

The Brave One, while essentially a revenge drama, looks promising not only because of Jodie’s presence, but also the strong cast (Terrence Howard, Mary Steenburgen, Jane Adams and newcomer Zoe Kravitz), talented director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Breakfast on Pluto) and the complex questions its plot poses.

In the scant 2 minutes and 28 seconds of the trailer, we see Jodie go through a lifetime of emotions: love, fear, pain, loss, confusion and rage. When Jodie’s voice breaks, I catch my breath (the sound of strength cracking gets me every time). And when she demands with an iron whisper, “I want my dog back,” you know it’s time for some serious ass-kicking. Bring on the popcorn.